Samajwadi Party symbol may go to group having majority

3 Jan

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav moved the Election Commission here on Monday to hold on to the party’s election symbol — the cycle, a day after his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav unseated him and became the new national president of the party.

SP Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav, who has backed Akhilesh Yadav in his struggle for control of the party, is likely to meet the EC on Tuesday to claim the party’s symbol before the crucial Assembly polls, whose schedule will be announced soon.

After calling Sunday’s development illegal, Mulayam Singh Yadav rushed to Delhi and spent the whole day with brother Shivpal Yadav and close aide Amar Singh at his residence here.

He went to the Election Commission at around 4.30 pm, and was escorted by Shivpal Yadav, Amar Singh and Jaya Prada. According to sources in the Election Comm-ission, in the event of a split in the Samajwadi Party, the bicycle symbol will go to the faction that can furnish support of the majority of party office-bearers.

However, if the commission doesn’t have enough time for verification, it can just freeze the symbol and ask both sides to chose new names and symbols.

Both camps of the Samajwadi parivar have been locked in a bitter feud for greater control of the party, resulting in several tit-for-tat sackings since August.